AG: First two indictments from untested rape kits

CLEVELAND -- The first two criminal indictments filed as a result of increased efforts to examine the state's untested rape kits for DNA evidence, according to Attorney General Mike DeWine and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.

"These two indictments are just the beginning," DeWine said.

Out of approximately 600 rape kits tested at the BCI lab so far, 90 have yielded a DNA hit.

This month, indictments were returned in two Cuyahoga County cases dating back approximately 20 years. DeWine expects many more indictments to come.

Charles Steele, 60, was indicted by McGinty's office for the rape and kidnapping of a Cleveland woman in 1993. He is accused of attacking the victim at gunpoint after forcing her into an abandoned garage.

Two days after that indictment, BCI matched Steele's DNA to another attack on a Cleveland woman that happened eight months after the first incident.

Charges in that case are pending. Steele is currently in prison on a Hamilton County rape conviction.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office also indicted Anthony Moore, 42, this week on charges of rape, kidnapping, felonious assault, and attempted murder in connection with another 1993 crime. Detectives with the Cleveland Police Department investigated the case.

So far, 53 law enforcement agencies have submitted a total of 2,465 rape kits to BCI for the DNA testing services, which are free to law enforcement.

More than 1,000 of those cases are from Cleveland.

DeWine announced the sexual assault kit testing initiative in December 2011, hiring four new Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) forensic scientists to focus exclusively on testing the old kits.

The scientists went through a period of training before beginning the testing in May 2012.